Guntur stroke unit to be in national network

The stroke unit at the Department of Neurology, Government General Hospital, Guntur, has achieved the rare honour of being included in nationwide Stroke Services Network, an initiative of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Christian Medical College (CMC), Ludhiana.

The Stroke Unit at Guntur will be part of the Indian Stroke Trial Network (INSTRUcT) to carry out stroke clinical trials. This is the first time in the two states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana that a stroke unit at the government hospital has been included in the Stroke Services Network, the brainchild of Head of Department of Neurology, CMC, Jeyraj Pandyan. Dr. Pandyan, who had inspected the facility recently at the GGH, appreciated the quality of service and invited Head of Department of Neurology, N.V. Sundarachary, to be part of the national network. The stroke unit was established at the Podila Prasad GMCANA superspeciality and Trauma Care, GGH in August 2015 with the support of AMG India International, which had contributed Rs.20.25 lakh.

“We have begun the groundwork for the project in the GGH, which can be useful to many poor patients. We have applied for a Tissue Plasminogen Activator (tPA) for treating acute ischemic strokes and we have also applied for inclusion in the National Stroke Registry run by the National Centre for Disease Informatics and Resources, Bengaluru,’’ Dr. Sundarachary told The Hindu on Wednesday.

The groundwork for maintaining the stroke units in “limited resources setting,’’ is being spearheaded by Dr. Sundarachary and his team. The work includes, stroke profiling of people from grassroots level, creating awareness about the possible causes leading to stroke, and the ‘golden hour’ in times of emergency.